Winter Olympics tough to follow when you grew up on diet of football and rugby

Great Britain's Rowan Cheshire in the Women's Ski Halfpipe training during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia

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As big a fan of sport as I am, the Winter Olympics does nothing for me.

I tried my hardest over the weekend to share in the highs and lows of elite skiing, snowboarding and curling – but found myself caring more for the spectacular Sochi scenery.

Credit the athletes for competing in such extreme conditions. Battling through snow can’t be easy and being high up in the Russian mountains must bring its own altitudinal problems. Closer to home, we mortals complain if it gets too cold on our brisk morning walk.

Believe it or not, the weather in the Black Sea resort has been remarkably mild. With average daytime temperatures of 10C, special snow manufacturers have been drafted in to counter warmer climes and ensure a generous dusting in all the right places. Away from the slopes, Sochi, it is said, has almost as many palm trees as Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, the perils of high-speed winter sport can’t be underestimated. Briton Rowan Cheshire was left unconscious after a heavy fall in halfpipe training, while Russian skier Maria Komissarova suffered a fractured spine during practice and had to undergo a six-hour emergency operation.

Chemmy Alcott, British skiing’s “bionic” woman, has had 42 bone-breaks and a horrific double fracture in late 2010 left her needing a metal plate in her leg. Make no mistake, competitors are tremendously dedicated and immensely brave. But I cannot relate to them or their achievements.

That is not in any way to downgrade what it is winter sportsmen and women do. But winter disciplines are so alien to me – and so far removed from what I knew growing up – that I find it difficult to buy into the Olympic hype and hysteria.

Don’t get me wrong, Sweden’s astonishing comeback in the women’s cross country 4x5km relay on Saturday was as gripping as any race – winter or otherwise – you are likely to see. But the fact I’ve never once worn a ski is, perhaps, the big issue here.

We in Wales grew up playing football and rugby – not careering face down on an icy track. If we did, it would have been after school on our old man’s sled – definitely not at 90mph. The question we have to ask, is how far we as a nation should be supporting – financially – the Winter Olympics?

Great Britain’s funding in the last four years has more than doubled from £6.5m to £13.5m. Our medal haul is paltry by comparison and in the past seven Games, Britain has averaged just one medal.

But this is not an argument based on relative success; it is more about priorities. I saw an interview recently in which the subject – herself an athlete – said that inspiring a “handful” of people to sample a winter sport would make our participation in the Olympics worthwhile.